German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) said Thursday it has agreed to extend talks with Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom OAO (GAZP.RS) to examine a possible electricity production joint venture in western Europe.

"After a series of constructive meetings during the past few weeks, RWE and Gazprom have agreed to continue their talks on a possible joint venture intensively," RWE said in a written statement.

It added that the talks will be continued until the end of the year.

The comments come ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline that was set when the discussions officially started around three months ago.

"The basis for the talks is the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties on July 14," RWE said.

At that time, both companies said they were examining options to create a jointly-owned company that would operate existing and possibly newly-built gas and coal-fired power plants in Germany , U.K. and the Benelux countries.

RWE previously said that it could contribute up to 10% of its power output capacity to any joint venture with Gazprom.

In return, Gazprom may offer RWE more flexible commercial terms of long-term gas supply contracts.

Like other western European utilities that purchase gas from Gazprom, RWE has sought an adjustment to its gas procurement contracts to reflect a disconnect between high, oil-indexed procurement prices and lower selling prices.

Pressured on the wholesale power and gas markets as well as Germany 's decision to accelerate its planned nuclear exit, RWE shares have lost over a third of its value in the last year. In response to the worsened business climate, RWE has pledged to sell assets worth EUR11 billion by the end of 2013 and said it intends to sell treasury shares and issue new shares to repair its balance sheet.

Russian state gas giant Gazprom has recently intensified its efforts to push into the European power sector--efforts that have previously been met with fierce opposition by European officials. Analysts say a venture with RWE could give Gazprom extra market opportunities for gas sales.

However, any deal between RWE and Gazprom could prompt antitrust authorities' interest in the tie up and Germany 's Federal Cartel Office had previously said it would thoroughly examine such a joint venture.

The German cartel office wasn't immediately available to comment Thursday.

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